It’s all fun and Games Until..
The month of June signifies my 7th month on a plant-based diet aka vegan lifestyle. There are many things I did not expect when changing my diet. There is often many awkward and weird stuff people don’t talk about when you go plant-based. I want to cover the top changes you will experience when you change your lifestyle.
If you are curious to know why I went vegan in the first place, you can visit my previous blog post. And if you are looking for some of amazing vegan restaurants, you can find my top 10 restaurants. Now let’s get this conversation going.
Things That Will Happen When You Go Plant-Based
1. Gas & Bloat.
Yes let’s talk about the nasty stuff. When you first go plant-based and stop eating meat your body begins to go through a self detox. Sometimes this detox will cause stomach pains due to bloating and gas🙊 This is something people don’t normally talk about but it happens. So if you are looking to try plant-based, just know this will happen. It usually takes about 1-2 weeks before it goes away I call this the introductory period. Don’t fret, it’s not forever.
2. Frequent trips to the bathroom.
Now this might cause issues because we all have day jobs and sometimes privacy isn’t all that great in those bathrooms. Yes I said it! 😂💀🙊 We’re all adults here silly. So it’s important to know that once you change your diet to plant-based, the extra fiber in your diet will cause more frequent bowel movements. Your body will continue this cleanse for a good 2 weeks until it flushes your body of all the toxins. Best to be aware and plan ahead.
3. You may lose or gain weight.
There are many reasons why people try a plant-based /vegan diet. It may be for health reasons, ethical reasons or simply just being trendy. Whatever the reason may be, you still have to pay attention to what you are eating. Not because you need to verify its “vegan” but because you might be taking in more carbs than you should. It’s very important to watch what you eat and know the type of vegetables you’re consuming. Broccoli, carrots and cauliflower are carb heavy vegetables and if you incorporate them with grains, you might be eating more carbs than you should.
4. Your taste buds change.
After you’ve been on a plant-based diet, your taste buds begin to change ever so slightly. Food that used to taste bland before become very flavorful and you may even begin to crave less sugars and sweets. It takes about a month or two for your tastes buds to adjust after you give up refined sugar, processed foods, dairy and all animal proteins. A great tip for starting a vegan diet, slowly incorporate the foods you don’t like into your diet. It will take a while for your palette to adjust, but it will and you might also find that your tolerance for spicy food might also change.
5. Your alcohol and/or caffeine tolerance is altered.
Somehow I was shocked when this happened. What did I expect though? I was on a plant-based diet and had cut back on carbs, of course drinking 2 alcoholic drinks was going to get me white-girl wasted. It happened once and I learned my lesson. However, the real shocking part was when a simple iced coffee began to affect me and made me feel as if I had 4 shots of espresso. I am now weak sauce when it comes to alcohol and caffeine.
Now that you have heard what to expect when going on a plant-based diet, would you ever consider giving it a try or are the side-effects not worth it to you?
XO Andie